A simple solution to help Houston traffic, our tax-debt-spend problem, HSR bankrupted Japan, Austin builds towards affordability, METRO comedy!
Just a few small items this week:
- Charles Blain in City Journal: Saddled With Taxes and Debt - Houston-area leadership is losing touch with the fiscal restraint and pragmatism that made the city an engine of growth.
- How high-speed rail help sap Japan's economic vitality. The lines look and operate great, but what you can't see is how they bankrupted Japan and helped cause decades of lost growth.
- Austin Builds Apartments and Single-Family Houses, Prices Fall
"I worried from afar that my hometown would meet the same fate as San Francisco, the poster child of the housing shortage and all its associated woes. I feared that Austin would become known as a playground for the rich, a city where displacement and mind-boggling home prices marred the natural beauty that once made it such a draw. In my hand-wringing, though, I'd overlooked one crucial detail: Texas is better at building homes than almost anywhere else in the country.”
There are differences between Austin (and Texas) and San Francisco that, if not changed will continue to make it possible to build in Austin (and Texas) and nearly impossible in San Francisco (and California). Unincorporated county territory in Texas is unzoned. That means that, barring environmental difficulties, developers and builders can build. By contrast, in the San Francisco metro, and virtually all of California, draconian state and local regulations make it very difficult to build on greenfield sites, where land prices would be much lower if the market were permitted to operate."
- Caught my eye from Y-Combinator Demo day: XTraffic
What it does: Reduces congestion and accidents with smart traffic lights
Why it’s a fave: Controlling traffic lights with AI sounds like the perfect application of this technology. XTraffic says that it’s already doing it in several cities in Texas. I hope they make it to my town in California, too, because I sure am tired of waiting for the light to turn green when there are no other cars around.
Please get this Houston!!
Finally, ending on a lighter note, maybe the first ever METRO Houston joke by a professional comedian?... 😅 (hat tip to Jay)
Labels: affordability, development, governance, high-speed rail, home affordability, land-use regulation, Metro, mobility strategies, rail, taxes
posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:03 PM
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